WASHINGTON — The launch of several cubesats by an American company without authorization from a federal agency has the rest of the industry worried of a potential regulatory and public relations backlash. IEEE Spectrum first reported March 10 that Swarm Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based startup operating in stealth mode, flew four picosatellites as secondary payloads on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in January. The SpaceBee satellites were identified in materials by the Indian space agency at the time as “two-way satellite communications and data relay” satellites, but did not…

WASHINGTON — Nineteen satellites launched on a Soyuz rocket Nov. 28 are now widely assumed to be lost, with one of the companies involved in the mission stating that the launch was a failure. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East early Nov. 28. After initial reports of a successful launch, the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said it could not contact the vehicle’s primary payload, the Meteor-M No.2-1 weather satellite, because it was not in its planned orbit. Neither Roscosmos nor Glavkosmos, the…

WASHINGTON — Controllers have been unable to contact a weather satellite launched on a Soyuz rocket from the country’s new spaceport Nov. 28, raising fears of a launch failure. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East at 12:41 a.m. Eastern. Its primary payload was the Meteor-M No.2-1 polar-orbiting weather satellite, with 18 small satellites flying as secondary payloads. The launch initially appeared to go as planned, but the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said in a statement several hours after launch that it was…

LONDON — Astroscale, a company developing technologies for removing orbital debris, announced Nov. 21 it has awarded a contract to Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to develop one part of an upcoming demonstration mission. In a ceremony during a Royal Aeronautical Society conference here on the commercialization of space, leaders of the two companies signed the contract for the target spacecraft that will be used on the End-of-Life Service by Astroscale demonstration, or ELSA-d, mission launching in the first half of 2019. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. The…

Astroscale is creating a service the space industry knows it needs even if there’s disagreement over who should pay for it. Removing out-of-commission satellites from orbit — including pre-planned de-orbits and unplanned but important debris removal — form the crux of Astroscale’s business plan. The company’s two satellites, Idea OSG-1 to monitor debris and ELSA-d to demonstrate de-orbit procedures, are scheduled to launch in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Idea OSG-1 is manifested on a Glavkosmos Soyuz. Investors have backed Astroscale’s vision to the tune of $53 million, showing meaningful confidence…